November 06, 2009

Police superintendent nervous about possible mass retirement

Police Superintendent Jody Weis told aldermen today he's "extremely nervous" that large numbers of police officers will retire from the already undermanned department over the next year.

In addition to 74 officers who have signed up to accept the department's offer of early retirement at age 55, Deputy Superintendent Ted O'Keefe said roughly another one thousand officers will be eligible to retire in the next year.

"It's impossible, frankly, to predict how many will retire," O'Keefe said.

But during the department's budget hearing at City Council today, Weis acknowledged the possibility that many officers will retire after a new police department contract is finalized, possibly next year. An arbitrator deciding the outcome of the contract impasse between the police union and the city could end up awarding back pay to officers, who might be encouraged to take the pay out and leave.

"I am extremely nervous about the number of officers who may choose to leave based upon the fact the contract may be signed in 2010," Weis said. "We have to be prepared for that type of loss, and we hopefully will have a better idea of what that will be toward the end of the year."

The department could save money if large numbers of higher paid, older officers retired, to be replaced by cheaper new recruits, Weis said.

But he pointed out there is a "lag time" of about six months after a new recruit is hired before the officer graduates from the police academy and begins street patrol.

There are already 600 vacant positions for sworn police officers on the department, O'Keefe said.

Earlier in the hearing, Weis told aldermen the department is trying to finalize plans for a private consultant to study the hot-button issue of realigning police patrol beats around the city.

The department hopes to sign a contract by the end of the year with the PAR Group, a consulting firm for local government with offices in Lake Bluff, Weis said during a City Council budget hearing.

Beat realignment has long been a political hot potato, with aldermen representing high-crime areas calling for more officers in their neighborhoods, and those from lower crime parts of the city loathe to give up any of their police.

Chicago police officials and some aldermen have been talking for years about the topic but haven't moved ahead. Instead, the department found some success in reducing crime with an approach that flooded hot spots with special teams of officers. That approach was tempered amid a corruption scandal when some officers were charged with abusing civil rights and committing crimes themselves.

The PAR Group would look at crime trends and population statistics, with an eye toward redistributing officers within districts and beats, Weis said.

"They look at community generated policing versus Chicago Police Department-directed activity," Weis said of PAR. "We hope to have a very, very good data set to look at where we need to reassign officers. As I've said many times, the assignment levels are based on data sets that are no longer in existence. Communities have changed, and they're about three decades old."

"We are committed to try to get the right number of officers, based on the threat that each particular community might face," he said. "But we want to do it with a set of data that takes a fresh look at our communities, as our communities have certainly changed over the past 30 years."

Ted O'Keefe, deputy police superintendent for administrative Services, told aldermen the contract with the PAR Group isn't finalized, but it is expected to worth in the neighborhood of $150,000.

Comments

Lets see, as I understand there are 13,500 Chicago police officers, but realistically only 6,000 are really working, and now up to 1,000 are ready to retire, less than 50 recruits have gone through the Chicago Police Academy this year, the economy is still circling the drain, unemployment is at 10.2% and Illinois is one of two states that doesn't allow their citizens to carry concealed weapons and the criminal element know that everyone is unarmed. If you think crime is bad now, wait another year and they'll be having gang on gang gun battles in the Loop, Jody Weis should be nervous, I'm nervous about these statistics and I don't live in Chicago.

Doesn't the Police Department have the numbers and crime maps already available? Aren't the Police department hierarchy experts in police strategy and tactics, crime prevention and deployment of manpower? Why is $150 million consultant necessary to tell them what they should already know? Things they are paid to know. When this study is completed, will there be any less political interference in police deployment by the politicians and "reverends" than there is now? Another excercise in futility and waste which will result in nothing in the way of results.

All 50 aldermen on the Chicago City Council had to file paperwork earlier this year detailing their outside income and gifts. The Tribune took that ethics paperwork and posted the information here for you to see. You can search by ward number or alderman's last name.

The Cook County Assessor's office has put together lists of projected median property tax bills for all suburban towns and city neighborhoods. We've posted them for you to get a look at who's paying more and who's paying less.

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